"Mr. Shue....."  Finn looked between Riley, Shue, and me with a worried expression.

"That's really kind of rude Mr. Shue."  It was Quinn who stood up to him now, "You are always talking about how you care about your students and you know how hard high school is and now you go and pull something like this?  It's not even a tradition.  We did it for the first time last year."

It took him a minute before he set his eyes on me and Riley and he finally realized what everybody was talking about.

"Oh, goodness, guys I am so sorry."

"No."  I looked over to Riley as she spoke, "We have just come in here and screwed up your schedules for the last week.  Please, Blaine and I will figure something out, but I actually kind of like the idea."

"Ya.  I'm with her.  Riley and I can still sing a song to our parents, or we can sing a song to each other or something."

"Are you guys sure?"

"Ya, you know what? I think hearing what all the other kids have to sing could really be cool.  I'm with you, Mr. Shue.  This is going to be really fun."

Everybody hesitantly got up and gathered around the piano to look at sheet music.  Eventually the awkward mood that hung in the air evaporated and every one was absorbed into searching for the right song for their parents.

I was right about one thing; this was a great way for me to learn a lot about my friends and their family dynamics.  I learned that Quinn's parents were divorced and that she lived with her mom although she didn't along with her so well.  Tina's parents weren't as supportive as they could have been so she turned to Mike's parents a lot.  Santana lived with her grandmother and Brittany's parents were supportive of her and whatever she decided to do.

Things got a little awkward for Finn and Kurt because neither of them were sure if they were supposed to sing a song for just their biological parents or if they were supposed to sing a song together for both of their parents.  In the end they decided that Finn would sing one for Carole and Kurt one for Burt and hope that the other one would understand.

Riley and I decided to help the other members find songs for their parents during rehearsal and we would pick ours out when we were on our own. 

We were sitting in the living room at the Hummel-Hudson house iPods in hand silently scrolling through songs.

"Ri, I don't even know what I am looking for.  I think we need to talk about this before we dive right in."

"What is there to talk about?"

"Well, let's start with the obvious.  How do you want to do this?  I mean, we can find songs and sing it to the other.  Or we can find a song that describes us together and just sing it.  We could always sing a song to the people who have so willingly taken us in..."

"No." Riley cut me off dropping her hands and eyes to the ground, "I want to sing one to Mom and Dad even though they aren't going to be there."

"You.... What?"

"Brother, you cannot honestly tell me that you don't have feelings towards how they treated us.  Even now, they are just out there living their lives forced to send us money once a month, but that's it.  They don't call.  They don't check in.  They are living like we never existed.  Doesn't that make you mad?"

"Of course it does, sister.  It really pisses me off, but there is nothing that we can do about it."

"That's not true.  You were the one to teach me that music holds a higher power in life.  It can be used to describe feelings and situations that you can't find words for."

"Ya, I do.  But there isn't a song out there called ‘Thanks for beating the shit out of me and my sister because you didn't like my life choices but at least God could save us.'"  Riley's face immediately turned to stone.

"You don't seriously mean that, do you?"

"Mean what?"

"Blaine.  God doesn't exist.  I thought you of all people would know that."

"How can you say that?  Look at everything he has done for us."  I pointed to the house around us.

"He has done nothing for us!"  Riley sat up a little straighter as she hushed her voice, "If God really existed we wouldn't have been through the hell that we went through with our parents.  After Dad threw me down and I was holding myself up with the kitchen table I started to pray.  I prayed so hard that night, Blaine.  I asked him to save you.  I asked him to stop Dad, for everything to be over, to get us out of that house.  But he didn't do that."

"Riley...."

"No. Just listen.  Please."  She took a deep breath and looked straight into my eyes.  "The next morning when Dad came home and you were out with Kurt I prayed again.  I asked him to keep Dad away from me.  I asked him why he was letting him do that to me and I woke up in the hospital the next day.  If God really does exist then he sucks.  You of all people should know that, he made you gay and then sent people to hate you for it."

"Stop.  Stop right now."  I couldn't believe the words I was hearing.  I took Riley's hands in mine, "Look around you, Ri.  Look at where you are.  God did answer your prayers.  Maybe not immediately, and maybe not in the way that you wanted him to, but he did.  He got you and me away from them.  You and I have been graciously taken in by people who barely knew us and those people are now like family.  We are safe here; nobody can touch us."

"That's not true.  There are still football players and people outside of high school that are going to bring us down."

"I'm pretty sure you took care of the football players during school today and we are just going to have to forget about everyone else."  She wasn't convinced, "You listen to me, and you listen good.  People like us, people who have been through so much in their lives, have no other choice but to believe that there really is a God because if we don't have that then we have nothing.  The thought of there being nothing better than this messed up world is too terrifying for me to even think about.  The thought that everything is going to get better one day is what gets me through my days."

"What about all the people saying that you are going to hell for being gay?"

"Well, that's their problem, not mine.  But I can tell you that I have something in my life that many of them will never have: love.  Kurt he.... He makes me believe that everything in life is going to be okay.  Because of him I'm not afraid to be myself and be proud."

"You really love him, don't you?"

"With half of my heart."

"Half?"

"The other half belongs to you."  She rolled her eyes at my dorkiness before going back to searching for songs on her iPod.  "Hey, I want you to have something in your life to help you too, Ri.  I want you to believe in a higher power, because without one, let's be honest, we probably wouldn't be here right now."

"I know.  I will try to come around the idea."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

Silently we both went back to our iPods to search for songs when she suddenly burst out in laughter.

"What is so funny?  Seriously....... you're going to have to fill me in..... I'm still waiting." 

Riley was finally able to catch her breath enough to tell me.

"How is it possible that you and I sat down to look for songs to sing for a glee club performance and ended up talking about God and love?" 

I started laughing with her.  Riley and I definitely had a special relationship, but she was right about that being weird.

"Too bad there isn't a song about that."

"We could always write one."  She said through her laughs again.

"I'm pretty sure that would be the worst song ever written.  In the history of ever."

"But it would be hilarious."

"That's true, there's no denying that.  But getting back to business we need to find a song."

"Well, you know how I feel."

"Ya, I just want to make sure that you're sure on that one."

"I still want to sing a song to them, Blaine."

"Good, because I think I found one."